Scarborough—Agincourt

Scarborough—Agincourt is an urban riding in the northeastern corner of Toronto, bounded roughly by Steeles Avenue to the north, Highway 401 to the south, Victoria Park Avenue to the west, and Midland Avenue to the east. The riding encompasses the neighbourhoods of Agincourt, L'Amoreaux, Tam O'Shanter–Sullivan, and parts of Milliken and Steeles.

Candidates

Jim Karygiannis (Liberal) — Karygiannis was one of the longest-serving MPs in the House of Commons, first elected in 1988. Born in Athens, Greece, he immigrated to Canada with his family in 1966 and graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in industrial engineering. Over his parliamentary career, he served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Transport and to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. He was widely recognized for his deep engagement with the riding’s diverse immigrant communities and for championing multicultural issues, including sponsoring a 2004 motion that recognized the Armenian genocide.

Harry Tsai (Conservative) — Tsai was a community figure in the riding’s Taiwanese-Canadian population who ran as the Conservative candidate in 2011.

Nancy Patchell (NDP) — Patchell carried the NDP banner in the riding.

Pauline Thompson represented the Green Party.

About the Riding

Scarborough—Agincourt was one of the most immigrant-rich ridings in Canada. According to the 2011 census, approximately two-thirds of the riding’s residents were immigrants, with a majority having arrived from Asia. The Chinese-Canadian community—including Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese speakers—comprised the largest single group at over 40 percent of the population, followed by a substantial South Asian community including Tamil, Gujarati, and Urdu speakers.

The riding’s commercial landscape reflected its demographics. The Agincourt Mall at Kennedy Road and Sheppard Avenue served as a neighbourhood hub, and the surrounding stretch of Sheppard Avenue East had developed into one of Toronto’s suburban Chinatowns, lined with Chinese-language businesses, restaurants, and shopping centres including the Pacific Mall just beyond the riding’s northern boundary in Markham.

The area was predominantly residential, with a mix of post-war single-family homes and newer townhouse developments. The Sheppard East light rapid transit line, announced by the province in 2009, was a major transit infrastructure issue for residents reliant on buses along the corridor. Employment in the riding was spread across retail, small business, and service sectors, with many residents commuting to jobs elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area. Settlement services, language training, and credential recognition for newcomers were recurring concerns of federal relevance.